I watched Weather Nation for the first time yesterday and thought I was watching an old Laugh In routine. The weather map behind the forecaster apparently goes to the floor. The “weathercaster’s” camera was in too tight on a closeup and he was actually in a semi-grouch trying to keep his face onscreen while pointing out specific locations and weather patterns. I always thought George Carlin was hilarious as the “Hippy Dippy Weatherman,” but this guy was trying — very trying.
I have been a viewer of the weather channel for 25 years. I have children that live in different parts of the country. If there is a major weather event where one of them lives, I won’t see the live coverage of the weather impacting event on weather nation like I can on the Weather Channel. I have an elderly mother who lives alone in the northeast and I live in the southeast. I relied on the weather channel to assess the weather conditions where she lives to determine when I needed to get someone to go and help her. I sure could have used the info provided on the weather channel this winter with all these snow storms. It is much better tool to assess the situation to see the live coverage then just to hear the forecast.
Weather Channel is a far superior informational product than weather nation.Direc TV will soon lose exclusive rights to the nfl package and then they will be humbled back to earth,and listen to what their existing customers want.
I have watched the weather channel ever since i was a kid, now 26, I like to think things through objectively and so I wasn’t outraged over it being cut from programming. I thought I would check the channel out just to see what its like.
Weather Nation does in fact keep in its stance on providing weather reports all the time when not in commercial; however, it should be noted that 40-50% of those forecast are just maps and numbers, there aren’t nearly as many live reports as I thought there would be. The weather maps are a bit vague, not very detailed. When you are looking for signs of tornadoes and hook echos in the radar, detail matters. Ive noticed that much of the forecasting tends to favor a broad regional area rather than focusing on a specific county or even part of a county. Again, you need this kind of detail when reporting weather. The resident needs to know where exactly this bad weather is hitting.
The Weather Channel does have quite a bit of reality programming, but I don’t care what these people are saying about “Prospecters” being on while a bad weather event is happening near them. ANY time there is a significant weather event that within the next hour or so could result in dmg or loss of life, The Weather Channel has always interrupted these programs to give you an update. Even after they resume programming, they keep the watches and warnings scrolling across the bottom of the screen. The maps are highly detailed, you can literally see if rain is happening in your neighborhood even from a regional view. The one thing I like best about The Weather Channel is, they don’t just TELL you the weather, they TEACH it to you. In that, I mean they tell you the science behind it, when a front or something moves through you know what it is, where it came from, and why its there. That way you can learn to interpret the weather in your area faster than pulling out a phone or tv. I love that, its very informative in that way.
If I were to compare the two now, I would say weather nation is about quantity…weather all the time, every time; and The Weather Channel is about quality, weather WHEN you need it and WHERE you need it to provide you top notch weather reporting before, during, and after an event. I have watched the weather channel during a live weather event and they ensure to repeat a LOT of what they said 30 minutes ago to make sure viewers just tuning in are up to date. It really is sad that Direct TV has chosen quantity over quality.
Right….while WeathNation was doing LA’s forecast, TWC was playing some stupid reality show. Has this Falavolito guy ever even watched TWC? I quit watching TWC when I couldn’t find info about the Chicago metro area and tornados spawning, because of some reality show. I have DirecTV, please stay the path!
TWC was only good if you lived on the east coast. I was guaranteed to know what the forecast was for Atlanta or Boston. Much like ESPN. I like the regional coverage provided by the new channel. I always wondered why there wasn’t TWC West and TWC East.
Ever since NBC Universal took ownership of TWC the content and technical quality of TWC programming has plunged. At one time event coverage included noted experts from the NWS and various educational institutions. Now it’s a bunch of twenty-somethings mugging for the camera in breaks between commercials and shows about Alaska State afghan-knitting whale police. As always, NBC programming targets the lowest common denominator with little or no regard for its technical responsibilities. The ‘naming’ of winter storms began with NBC and makes about as much sense as broadcasting ‘reality’ TV on a channel meant for information. NBC is all about audience share and pricing of ad time – the network cares nothing about providing genuine content. Ah, for the good old days when NBC News was the envy of its competitors and the network spent enormous amounts to provide content that no other broadcasting source could match.
Would rather have the weather channel. Living in Texas with family in NY, PA and MD, often we would have the weather channel on “just because”……because of all the crap on other stations. We are considering switching to Dish since DirecTV is in breach of their contract to us.
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I watched Weather Nation for the first time yesterday and thought I was watching an old Laugh In routine. The weather map behind the forecaster apparently goes to the floor. The “weathercaster’s” camera was in too tight on a closeup and he was actually in a semi-grouch trying to keep his face onscreen while pointing out specific locations and weather patterns. I always thought George Carlin was hilarious as the “Hippy Dippy Weatherman,” but this guy was trying — very trying.
I have been a viewer of the weather channel for 25 years. I have children that live in different parts of the country. If there is a major weather event where one of them lives, I won’t see the live coverage of the weather impacting event on weather nation like I can on the Weather Channel. I have an elderly mother who lives alone in the northeast and I live in the southeast. I relied on the weather channel to assess the weather conditions where she lives to determine when I needed to get someone to go and help her. I sure could have used the info provided on the weather channel this winter with all these snow storms. It is much better tool to assess the situation to see the live coverage then just to hear the forecast.
Weather Channel is a far superior informational product than weather nation.Direc TV will soon lose exclusive rights to the nfl package and then they will be humbled back to earth,and listen to what their existing customers want.
I have watched the weather channel ever since i was a kid, now 26, I like to think things through objectively and so I wasn’t outraged over it being cut from programming. I thought I would check the channel out just to see what its like.
Weather Nation does in fact keep in its stance on providing weather reports all the time when not in commercial; however, it should be noted that 40-50% of those forecast are just maps and numbers, there aren’t nearly as many live reports as I thought there would be. The weather maps are a bit vague, not very detailed. When you are looking for signs of tornadoes and hook echos in the radar, detail matters. Ive noticed that much of the forecasting tends to favor a broad regional area rather than focusing on a specific county or even part of a county. Again, you need this kind of detail when reporting weather. The resident needs to know where exactly this bad weather is hitting.
The Weather Channel does have quite a bit of reality programming, but I don’t care what these people are saying about “Prospecters” being on while a bad weather event is happening near them. ANY time there is a significant weather event that within the next hour or so could result in dmg or loss of life, The Weather Channel has always interrupted these programs to give you an update. Even after they resume programming, they keep the watches and warnings scrolling across the bottom of the screen. The maps are highly detailed, you can literally see if rain is happening in your neighborhood even from a regional view. The one thing I like best about The Weather Channel is, they don’t just TELL you the weather, they TEACH it to you. In that, I mean they tell you the science behind it, when a front or something moves through you know what it is, where it came from, and why its there. That way you can learn to interpret the weather in your area faster than pulling out a phone or tv. I love that, its very informative in that way.
If I were to compare the two now, I would say weather nation is about quantity…weather all the time, every time; and The Weather Channel is about quality, weather WHEN you need it and WHERE you need it to provide you top notch weather reporting before, during, and after an event. I have watched the weather channel during a live weather event and they ensure to repeat a LOT of what they said 30 minutes ago to make sure viewers just tuning in are up to date. It really is sad that Direct TV has chosen quantity over quality.
Right….while WeathNation was doing LA’s forecast, TWC was playing some stupid reality show. Has this Falavolito guy ever even watched TWC? I quit watching TWC when I couldn’t find info about the Chicago metro area and tornados spawning, because of some reality show. I have DirecTV, please stay the path!
Maybe you should mention that The Weather Channel is owned by NBC.
TWC was only good if you lived on the east coast. I was guaranteed to know what the forecast was for Atlanta or Boston. Much like ESPN. I like the regional coverage provided by the new channel. I always wondered why there wasn’t TWC West and TWC East.
Ever since NBC Universal took ownership of TWC the content and technical quality of TWC programming has plunged. At one time event coverage included noted experts from the NWS and various educational institutions. Now it’s a bunch of twenty-somethings mugging for the camera in breaks between commercials and shows about Alaska State afghan-knitting whale police. As always, NBC programming targets the lowest common denominator with little or no regard for its technical responsibilities. The ‘naming’ of winter storms began with NBC and makes about as much sense as broadcasting ‘reality’ TV on a channel meant for information. NBC is all about audience share and pricing of ad time – the network cares nothing about providing genuine content. Ah, for the good old days when NBC News was the envy of its competitors and the network spent enormous amounts to provide content that no other broadcasting source could match.
Would rather have the weather channel. Living in Texas with family in NY, PA and MD, often we would have the weather channel on “just because”……because of all the crap on other stations. We are considering switching to Dish since DirecTV is in breach of their contract to us.